Sept. 30--When dance music artist Oscar Powell emailed Chicago producer Steve Albini to ask permission for a vocal sample, he ended up with more material than he expected.
Powell said he asked Albini, who owns Electrical Audio in Avondale, to use a track sample from Albini's time with Evanston punk band Big Black. Albini replied that he didn't care if Powell used his work but said he's always "detested mechanized dance music."
Powell turned Albini's email into a billboard in London in the hopes that "using his words might help start a conversation about the mess contemporary electronic music finds itself in." Still, Powell said he's getting criticized for using Albini's anti-EDM email to promote his new EDM single "Insomniac."
"This isn't a 'Steve vs. Me' at all; the reason I wanted to put his response on a billboard is, because like almost everything he's said about the state of music before, I agree with him," Powell said in an email to the Tribune. Powell said Albini said he didn't care if Powell used his email.
Albini told the Tribune in an email that he doesn't "really have an opinion" about the billboard. He said he's gotten some ribbing from his wife and friends about it.
In his April email to Powell, Albini wrote, "I am absolutely the wrong audience for this kind of music. I've always detested mechanized dance music, its stupid simplicity, the clubs where it was played, the people who went to those clubs, the drugs they took, the (expletive) they liked to talk about, the clothes they wore, the battles they fought amongst each other. ... Basically all of it, 100 percent hated every scrap."
He continued: "The electronic music I liked was radical and different, (expletive) like the White Noise, Xenakis, Suicide, Kraftwerk, and the earliest stuff from Cabaret Voltaire, SPK and DAF. When that scene and those people got co-opted by dance/club music I felt like we'd lost a war. I detest club culture as deeply as I detest anything on earth. So I am against what you're into, and an enemy of where you come from but I have no problem with what you're doing."
Powell said he has received mixed response to the billboard. He said while there is no information about his music on the poster, he has gotten flak because the billboard has been seen as a marketing tool for "Insomniac." The video is set to debut in a few weeks, Powell said.
"I believe finding interesting ways to talk about music, rather than just paying for more space on Spotify, is part of the challenge we face today. What would you rather? A billboard with my face on it? I mean, that would be beautiful, sure, but dull," Powell said.
